Given that her political world is crumbling around her, Michele Bachmann is trying desperately to dig herself out of the hole she currently finds herself. The new meme is that she was first trapped by that gosh darn gotcha media and second that she was completely misunderstood. If Michele wants to parse, I would be more than happy to play the parsing game. While I cannot hit all of her new excuses, let's take a look a few:
Bachmann is now making the claim that she did not use the term "anti-American" first and was only repeating the term presented to her by Gotcha media man Chris Matthews. Fine, let's parse:
It is true that Matthews was the first to use the term "anti-American". However, moments before that Bachmann is discussing various people who she claims have NEGATIVE views of America. Are the phrases, "negative views of America" and "anti-American" the same? Well, in the world of synonyms they cannot be far apart. The only way to divide them is to make the case that holding negative views of America means that you believe there are areas in which America could use improvement. Does anyone believe that Bachmann would claim that holding "negative views of America" makes them less than "anti-American"?
The second issue is that Bachmann is claiming that she did not MEAN that Barack Obama or members of Congress are "anti-American". Fine, let's parse:
Michele Bachmann said, "“Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views. That’s what the American people are concerned about."
Obviously, she is hiding behind the qualifiers CONCERNED and MAY. With those words she can plausibly say that she didn't MEAN that Barack Obama IS "anti-American". However, she cannot take back that she is CONCERNED about his views and that those views MAY be "anti-American". So, the question needs to be asked, what happened between Friday when you were CONCERNED about his "anti-American" views and today when you made the claim that "He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does."?
Finally, and the most important reason for the tidal wave of support for Elwyn Tinklenberg, was her statement about an investigative report on the views of members of Congress. It is far more difficult for Bachmann to take this one back but she sure is going to try. Fine, let's parse:
Today, her claim: “Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said.”
Well, Michele, this IS what you said: “What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an exposé like that.”
The only possible parse to be made here is that she called for an expose and never did say the word investigation. So, what is the difference? The only plausible difference that can be used by Bachmann is that an expose would be little more than a story while an investigation connotes some sort of solution to a problem would be put forward.
So, Bachmann can parse and backpedal all she wants but these are the undisputable facts:
Bachmann is now making the claim that she did not use the term "anti-American" first and was only repeating the term presented to her by Gotcha media man Chris Matthews. Fine, let's parse:
It is true that Matthews was the first to use the term "anti-American". However, moments before that Bachmann is discussing various people who she claims have NEGATIVE views of America. Are the phrases, "negative views of America" and "anti-American" the same? Well, in the world of synonyms they cannot be far apart. The only way to divide them is to make the case that holding negative views of America means that you believe there are areas in which America could use improvement. Does anyone believe that Bachmann would claim that holding "negative views of America" makes them less than "anti-American"?
The second issue is that Bachmann is claiming that she did not MEAN that Barack Obama or members of Congress are "anti-American". Fine, let's parse:
Michele Bachmann said, "“Absolutely. I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views. That’s what the American people are concerned about."
Obviously, she is hiding behind the qualifiers CONCERNED and MAY. With those words she can plausibly say that she didn't MEAN that Barack Obama IS "anti-American". However, she cannot take back that she is CONCERNED about his views and that those views MAY be "anti-American". So, the question needs to be asked, what happened between Friday when you were CONCERNED about his "anti-American" views and today when you made the claim that "He loves his country, just as everyone in this room does."?
Finally, and the most important reason for the tidal wave of support for Elwyn Tinklenberg, was her statement about an investigative report on the views of members of Congress. It is far more difficult for Bachmann to take this one back but she sure is going to try. Fine, let's parse:
Today, her claim: “Nor did I call for an investigation of members of Congress for their pro-American or anti-American views. That is not what I said.”
Well, Michele, this IS what you said: “What I would say is that the news media should do a penetrating exposé and take a look. I wish they would. I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out, are they pro-America or anti-America? I think people would love to see an exposé like that.”
The only possible parse to be made here is that she called for an expose and never did say the word investigation. So, what is the difference? The only plausible difference that can be used by Bachmann is that an expose would be little more than a story while an investigation connotes some sort of solution to a problem would be put forward.
So, Bachmann can parse and backpedal all she wants but these are the undisputable facts:
- She began the implication of "anti-Americanism" even if she didn't explicitly begin the use of the word.
- On Friday, Bachmann was at the very least CONCERNED about Barack Obama being "anti-American". So, what changed?
- She wants someone to define who is "anti-American" and who is "pro-American".
